With ZCash Support, Is Stellar (XLM) Next for Coinbase?

Coinbase, Stellar (XLM), ZCash (ZEC)–As previously reported by EWN, the market of cryptocurrency and ZCash received a jolt of interest over the most recent listing by U.S. based exchange Coinbase. Since announcing in July their interest in pursuing five new currencies, Coinbase has held a sway over both investors and the market of cryptocurrency with their ability to impact coin prices. Of the five originally listed (0x, Basic Attention Token, ZCash, Cardano, and Stellar), only the latter two have yet to make their way onto the exchange–a somewhat surprising development given that both represent the two largest by market cap of the selection.

Stellar’s XLM, in particular, has been a betting favorite for addition to the exchange given both it’s high profile presence in the industry, having been tied to blockchain development with IBM and rumors of potential integration on social media giant Facebook’s platform, in addition to holding the fourth highest position on total market cap for crypto–just one spot below mainstay Ethereum.

While investors wait on news about the direction Coinbase will take in relation to the XLM coin, which would offer some much needed diversity to their limited selection of currency offering, it’s possible the exchange is waiting for the landscape of the market to shift to more favorable conditions. Given the ongoing bear market of 2018, investor buying motivation is reaching a low to end the year, as investors weary from seeing red refrain from entering into the markets. In particular, the last two weeks of precipitous price fall make it unlikely that even a big addition to the exchange, such as the one XLM could provide, will deliver the sort of trading movement that the exchange had anticipated when first announced in July. While cryptocurrency is still seeing sufficient transaction volume on exchanges, enough to make them wildly profitable as Binance is on pace to reach record profits, the jolt of investor excitement over a high profile addition like Stellar is undoubtedly dampened by November’s price plummet.

However, not all in the space of crypto have been happy with the focus on exchange driven growth. In July, Ethereum founder Vitalik Buterin blasted the majority of cryptocurrency exchanges, stating, “I definitely hope centralized exchanges go burn in hell.” XRP investors, in particular, have been on the losing end of exchange associations with the currency. Since January, the price of XRP has traced several rounds of boom-and-bust following rumors associating the coin with a possible listing on Coinbase, leading to general investor fatigue and frustration.

There has been some development on the Stellar blockchain in relation to a possible listing that is causing somewhat of a stir. Whale Alert, a wallet tracking service on Twitter, posted several updates related to massive amounts of XLM being moved on Nov. 29th.

Some have pointed to this being a possible prelude to a big listing like Coinbase, with the service experimenting with moving large amounts of XLM. However, others have pointed to the fact that this is likely a misleading transaction amount, with the memos on the transactions reading “IS NOT REAL.”